A recent survey indicated that clean Taxi Cabs Fleets have higher tip rates and repeat customers. How do you wash a taxicab? You do them four at a time and you go up and over and up and over when you are drying them. If they have a little taxi cab sign, dry that last. But you do the rest of the car the way you do a regular car. The only difference is you are going to spray three, four, five, sometimes six cars at a time. Then another crewmember is going to follow behind you and do all the windows really well. You do a quick vacuum with a taxicab. Seriously, you do not want to be in that taxicab for more then a minute or a minute and a half. Now most taxicabs are usually scratched and they look like crap. This is something you are going to have to deal with. This is just the way they are going to look which is good for you because they are not expecting a perfect job. They just want them to look clean because they have their logo on them. Taxi companies are very low budget operations and low cost will get you the account. Some taxicabs are owned by independent contractors. You will need to charge more since the volume is not there. Staging areas at big airports are a good place to find lots of taxicabs.

Rent-A-Cars

Rent-a-cars these days are mostly small, tiny cars that get really good gas mileage. They are Toyota Tercels, Ford Contours and Dodge Neons and things like that. You can wash a Dodge Neon in your sleep in about three minutes. Really easy to clean, really, really easy and that is important. You want some accounts that are easy. Three dollars is fair for exteriors, five dollars for in and out is fine. It is important to have efficiency when washing rent-a-cars. No more than two minutes for vacuuming. You only want to clean the windows that are dirty. You do not want to clean all of the windows on a rent-a-car, just where you see fingerprints. You want to wipe off the dash really quick, wipe around the center console and use cleaner on the sticky stuff. Hit the inside windows that are dirty, wash the outside. You want to do them five, six at a time and you want to dry them off real fast, make sure the windows are clean and go to the next car. Rent-a-cars are really good money. You want to charge an extra two dollars for taking out carpet stains. Use some Folex cleaner or advanced carpet stain remover, some kind of a little carpet brush and a towel to wipe up whatever you precipitate at the top of the carpet after you have got it wet. The carpet remover should come off on the towel. There will always be trash in rent-a-cars, a lot of trash. You should have a bucket ready that you just put trash in and move it from car to car. Dump it before you leave. Usually rent-a-cars will have a Dempsey Dumpster around the back where you can dump all of your trash.

Rent-a-car companies are very careful and exacting as to what times of day they want their cars washed. They may have a whole bunch of vehicles in on Monday mornings and want you to do cars on Monday mornings. You are going to have to do the cars at that time. They are probably going to want them done before eight o’clock in the morning. So if you are doing the cars before eight o’clock in the morning and there are twenty or thirty rent-a-cars, it is quite serious that you get them all done in time. The rent-a-car company is paying you so they do not have to drive them to the car wash. It is rather important that you get them done on time. It is really easy to get them all done if you work efficiently. You are doing them six at a time. If you have twenty cars to do, you need to have them done by eight thirty to nine o’clock and you are doing them six at a time, you should have twenty-four cars done in an hour if you are really flying through them and you have the right crew. So pay attention to this. You can afford to do the cars for five dollars each because the job comes out to about one hundred dollars an hour. Think about this for a second. Think about the time and efficiency and how fast can you do them. This attitude is what will help you pick up the rent-a-car company accounts. If you can do them very, very quickly and you can do them not perfectly but good enough to make them happy, there is a lot of money in rent-a-car washing. Our crews in other towns already wash for: Budget, Avis, Dollar, Hertz, Enterprise and generally can afford to wash them and retain a profit at only $5.00 per vehicle.

Police Cars

It is time to talk about police cars. We just saw a police car go the other way with his lights on. In any case, police cars, how do you wash a police car? Well first of all, you wash it like you would wash any normal car but you want to make sure you clean the light bar really well. You do not want to spray water inside the light bar, you will screw up the electronics. You also do not want to, but some of our guys love to do it, spray water inside the PA speaker on the front of the police car that is mounted by the bumper. The reason they like to do that is because it burns them outs and gives them a short. So, you should not do that. Now under the seats of a police car you find all kinds of cool stuff. Best to hand it over to the authorities and not smoke it yourself. You will find crazy stuff under the seats of a police car where you are going to have to clean. Depending on how you feel you can either vacuum the stuff up or put it into a little bag and give it to the watch commander. You need to dust the radios inside of the police car, but you have to be careful not to turn any knobs. There are always bugs on the light bars, but you cannot blast off the bugs as much as you would like to. You really need to soap them off and not blast them off. Sometimes the light bars get real brittle on the older police cars. You can actually blast right through them. I have done it before.

For some reason police like to go 4 X 4′ ing when they are going through center dividers in order to catch a terrible criminal such as a speeder. They will go off road and do whatever; maybe they are just having fun. So you have to make sure that you clean all the mud off the police cars, they are a little bit muddier then most cars. The bottoms of the police cars are always muddy and they are going to need hand soaping. Police cars are often black and white. Usually the white part is where the door is so the policeman knows where to get in. The rest of the car is black. Now the part of the car that is black, remember it is black. If you are doing police cars in the sun and you are trying to do them three at a time, you may have a little problem getting to all of them. Some cities have police cars that are all white cars or all green cars or a mixture and that makes it a little bit easier.

There are certain additional things you have to watch for when cleaning police cars. Do not have a bunch of stuff out of your truck when you are washing a line of police cars. Someone may run out of the building and want to take their car. If you cannot move the truck in time you will really frustrate that officer. He wants to look official and squeal the tires out of the parking lot so you may as well just let him do whatever he wants to do.

Driving School Cars

Driving school cars are basically just like rent-a-car companies. The only difference is you want to spend a little more time on the dash board and a lot of time on the windows. You probably need to get five or six dollars each. This is giving them a deal because normally you charge ten dollars for in and out.

“Lance Winslow” – Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/. Lance is an online writer in retirement.

Education:

“The act or process of educating or being educated; the knowledge or skill obtained or developed by a learning process!”

Inquiries into furthering my educational aspirations were made to various colleges within my immediate environmental area. Several of the schools contacted required placement exams that I did not challenge, as I am adept and very capable of dealing with college examinations. The thing that got to me was the disparaging remarks from some college recruiters regarding their standards for education as opposed to another college. One of the schools that I’ve attended is a two-year degree school while the other is as well. They hold real estate in the same zip code and competed for students in the same local. They both educated local students as well as out of state and students from other countries and nations.

One school considered itself superior to the other by reason of accreditation. The school that was described as inferior did not have middle states accreditation. The school was described as below standard by the other. The so-called superior school is lead and operated by a non-HBCU affiliation while the other happened to be lead and operated by an African American staff. The self-described superior school has made plans, designs, and did bid for the take-over of the African American school. Albeit, the self-described superior school admits that it does not and will not accept credentials from the so-called inferior school. I have attended both of these institutions and received very good instruction from its teachers as well. While the lessons learned were an invaluable source of information, the education that I received from personal academic research (self-taught) has enhanced my knowledge base. Money was not a factor in my personal research, study, and/or practicum. I would add, the knowledge and information that was derived from the HBCU School proved to be equally rewarding as the other if not better!

Personally, I would say that I received more educational value at the HBCU (Historical Black Colleges and Universities) as opposed to the other collegiate institution. Albeit, they both required money.

When students visit college campuses they are encouraged to become a student at that particular school. The tour guides’ show all of the amenities and accolades that are offered in order to get you enrolled…and to gain your tuition monies. But what about the quality of education offered by the particular schools? The majority of the colleges will often quote their accreditation as compared to another school of choice. What has accreditation to do with a good and valuable quality education? Money! And the ability to make money! Education does not and should not require money! 

In 1899 Dr. Matthew Anderson, an outstanding community leader, and his wife Caroline Still Anderson founded Berean Manual and Industrial School. Dr. Anderson was a pivotal influence in the religious, business, and educational history of Philadelphia. Dr. Anderson also founded the Berean Presbyterian Church and the Berean Savings Fund Society.

Caroline Still is the daughter of the great William Still, a Philadelphia Abolitionist and member of the Underground Railroad.

Mr. William Still (a self-educated man), one of seventeen children, was born in Burlington County in 1821. His father escaped slavery from Maryland to New Jersey and later was followed by his wife and children. William Still left New Jersey for Philadelphia in 1844. Three years later he was appointed secretary of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society.

“When Brother William Still was 23, he left the family farm in New Jersey for Philadelphia, to seek his fortune. He arrived, friendless with only five dollars in his possession. Mr. Still taught himself to read and write. In fact, so well, that in three years he was able to gain and hold the position of secretary in the Pennsylvania Abolition Society. Brother Still provided the all-white society with his views on how to aid fugitive slaves. After all, he had been one himself. He was such an asset to the group, that he was elected chairman in 1851. Still held the position for the next ten years. He also became chairman of the Vigilance Committee in 1852. Still was the first black man to join the society and was able to provide first-hand experience of what it was like to be a slave.”

“Mr. Still established a profitable coal business in Philadelphia. His house was used as one of the stations on the Underground Railroad. Brother Still interviewed escaped fugitives and kept careful records of each so that their family and friends might locate them. According to his records, Still helped 649 slaves receive their freedom. The number is compounded with the number of slaves saved by Sister Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad.”

“William Still, a self-educated man, began his campaign to end racial discrimination on Philadelphia streetcars. He wrote an account of this campaign in Struggle for the Civil Rights of the Coloured People of Philadelphia in the City Railway Cars (1867). He followed this with The Underground Railroad (1872) and Voting and Laboring (1874).”

“William Still, a self-educated man, established an orphanage for the children of African-American soldiers and sailors. Other charitable work included the founding of a Mission Sabbath School and working with the Young Men’s Christian Association. William Still died in Philadelphia on 14th July, 1902.”

The Concise History of Berean Institute:

“In 1904 Berean Institute of Philadelphia Pennsylvania qualified for state aid and received a grant of $10,000. Over the years, state aid has enabled the school to expand its services and diversify its programs of study. Funds from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania now provide a significant portion of the total operating budget. Berean Institute embarked on a program of expansion under the dynamic leadership of the late Dr. William H. Gray, Jr., who utilized the support of many influential citizens of Pennsylvania including the former Governor Milton J. Shapp. Dr. Gray served as Chairman of the Berean Board of Trustees. Under Dr. Gray’s leadership Berean Manual and Industrial School began operating as Berean Institute. He also had Berean Institute’s current building constructed in 1973.”

“Mrs. Lucille P. Blondin, who served the school for forty-five years, became Berean Institute’s first President. Mrs. Blondin retired in June 1993. Dr. Norman K. Spencer was appointed to serve as the second President and Chief Executive Officer. Under Dr. Spencer’s leadership, contracted programs funded by the City and Commonwealth agencies as well as community outreach projects have been added. Hon. John Braxton, former Judge, Court of Common Pleas heads a list of distinguished Board of Trustees members.”

“Berean Institute enrolled students in full and part-time programs. Most of the students are residents of the Commonwealth and live in Philadelphia. Other students have come from Central and South America, China, India, Puerto Rico, Tonga, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Tanzania, the Dominican Republic, England, Cambodia, Viet Nam and states along the eastern seaboard of the United States.”

“A number of students come to learn a marketable skill and their Berean training fulfills their current educational aspirations. Many others regard the school as a stepping-stone to further education. Berean has many graduates who have gone on to earn four-year college degrees and others who have completed graduate studies at some of the area’s outstanding institutions of higher learning.”

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s Department of Education granted Berean Institute approval to award the Associate in Specialized Technology Degree on September 15, 1976, and the Associate in Specialized Business Degree on December 27, 1976.

Again, education is:

“The act or process of imparting or acquiring general knowledge, developing the powers of reasoning and judgment, and generally of preparing oneself or others intellectually for mature life; the act or process of imparting or acquiring particular knowledge or skills, as for a profession; a degree, level, or kind of schooling: a university education; .the result produced by instruction, training, or study: to show one’s education; the science or art of teaching; pedagogics.”

A definition of education: ‘The act or process of educating or being educated; the knowledge or skill obtained or developed by a learning process; a program of instruction of a specified kind or level: driver education; a college education; the field of study that is concerned with the pedagogy of teaching and learning; an instructive or enlightening experience:

Dictionary.com Unabridged

Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009

So why does another school rate it’s accreditation over and above that of another? Money! Many colleges and universities rate its’ educational values based on the amount of money in its’ coffers as well as the amount of money that they can amass!  Another tool to increase superiority in the education business is to attain and maintain accreditation and as many acquisitions as possible.

Several opinions suggest education achieved through these venues is designed to prepare people/students for the job market as opposed to being prepared for life skills. The skills required to carry ones posterity and their descendants that follow into prosperous futures.

Is it fair to assess the stature of a collegiate institution above any other based on the amount of money that is needed to be spent or the amount of education that is achieved? Ivy league institutions turn out many students who are not prepared for the challenges of life…but many of them are rich and have spent thousands of dollars to attend those schools as well as graduating from them. On the other hand, many poor people that are lucky enough to qualify for grants, loans, scholarships, etc., are better prepared to face the challenges set before them (so it seems).

Many poor and working poor students seem to value the collegiate level education as if their life depended upon it, so they tend to work a bit harder to achieve the degree status. The document can be deemed worthless when the graduate cannot find the desired job for which he/she has studied. It is even worse when the graduated student finds that they are worse off than when they started college. They are now burdened with school loan debt plus the debts that they have had to meet before attending college. Working at McDonalds and the like, seem to be the only job that is attainable for many of them. The competition is fierce. These students are for the most part, grouped in with many applicants that are not college educated and many do not have high school diplomas as well! The knowledge attained is not considered or tested by many of these employers. Kiosk type pictures on a cash-register computer is what they have to work with. Is this not insulting to a student who has studied computer science, read and write computer programs and its languages, as well as other academics of study? 

Why is it that many non-ivy league students find themselves out of work? Why is it that many of them find that they are the first to lose their employment positions compared to their ivy-league colleagues? Why is it that many inner-city college educated graduates find themselves less likely to be selected as team-leaders than their counter part ivy-leaguers? Many employers advertise their openings with statements that don’t require a college level education. They ask that candidates simply have a high school level education. College educated candidates apply to those openings and find themselves scrutinized out of the running, i.e., background checks, credit checks, criminal histories, schooling activities, etc. Why is it college educated candidates find that not only do they have to compete with ivy-leaguers, they have to compete with high school educated folks as well. What is the sense in enduring hours, years, and other sacrifices to attain the coveted two and/or four-year college level degree when you’re not going to qualify for the job anyway? 

The notion of accreditation, money, and notable stature should not be the basis of choosing the collegiate route to education. Education should be based on ones ability to achieve, retain, and utilize education. The achievement of education begins in the home (as well as anyone who desires it). It begins with the Childs’ upbringing and the stressed importance placed by the parent and/or guardian. Should the child be highly scholastic in abilities that enable him/her to be described as intellectually talented above average, that student deserves free college education. While the rest of us who are collegiate material may well have to pay for our higher education. Mind you, my argument is based on the ability to access education without having to spend money…teachers need to earn a living, schools need to pay the costs of operating and maintaining buildings and staff. So the money has to come from somewhere. Albeit, the aforementioned disparages between different colleges should cease the practice of who’s a better institution of higher learning. Is it the responsibility of educated people to enlighten people who are not?

While many may not be aware, education is achievable without attending so-called accredited and/or less accredited schools, of higher learning…start with the libraries in your homes as well as the public facilities, news papers, magazines, shared information, and articles. Why is the education attained by others kept to a level of secrecy that one should have to pay for it?

Attained and acquired education is the responsibility of the educational pursuer…the burden is placed solely on the student not the educational pursued. I’m not advocating that one can become a doctor, architect, or a lawyer by simply reading text…there is a difference between education and training.

Education is yours to achieve and it can be free.

Acknowledgements:

Dictionary.com

Biography of William Still

Biography of the Berean Institute

Introduction

Clothing is a big ticket item around the world. No matter what culture you live in, what language you speak, what gender you are and what you do for a living a big part of the expenses of your life is going to rest solely on clothing. Without clothing, it is not only unpleasant to appear in public but in most places it is also socially unacceptable except in other areas. There are many times when clothing is something that people do not really think about, but at others things like designer clothing are thought of a great deal both by the companies that make them as well as the customers that buy them.

This begs the question as to whether or not certain clothing businesses in certain places have the ability to survive. Designer clothing is something that many people are interested in constructing a business around but at the same time it is also something that many people don’t really understand when it comes right down to it. Designer clothing has a very special niche market whereas normal clothing is open to everyone. The Bali Clothing Retail Business deals in both designer clothing and normal clothing and manages to do well at both.

Bali Clothing Retail Business

The Bali clothing retail business is one that is just starting to get off the ground but already it shows a lot of promise in many different areas. Bali is an island in the archipelago nation of Indonesia and aside from the tourist attractions and the rich cultural heritage it also has a growing wholesale and retail clothing and handicrafts sector. Part of that sector is the retail clothing business and when you consider the clothing business specifically for Bali clothing you find that in Bali clothing as in all other kind of clothing you have the potential for both designer and normal clothing.

Designer Fashion Garments

Designer Bali clothing is actually just historical clothing that has been altered to appeal to the tastes of people that are interested in designer clothing. When you look back and forth between the different kinds of designer clothing, one thing becomes immediately obvious. The most popular kinds of designer clothing populations are younger girls that are either in their teens or twenties and when they look for designer clothing they are either looking for something that is popular or something that is new. Most of the time their own taste actually doesn’t play into it as much as whether or not they think the item they are purchasing will be popular. Since foreign designs frequently do end up being popular, it becomes easy to see why the Bali designer clothing has been able to infiltrate and find a foothold within the designer clothing industry at large.

Normal General Clothing

Of course, when it comes right down to it normal clothing is still a big hit. Bali clothing shops still sell jeans and t-shirts as retail items and in addition also sell sweaters. Not many people find need of a sweater in the Indonesian climate but that same sweater will definitely come in handy when they get back to wherever they came from. Normal clothing isn’t as big as designer clothing in Bali, but they both play a role in shaping the final landscape.

Related resources:

Antique Dealer Directory List Antique Shop, Dealers, Malls

Shopping Guide Directory For Fashion Clothes Jewelry Accessories Shoes Beauty Cosmetics

Buy Wholesale Clothing And Jewelry At Cheap Prices

There are bowling shoes designed for people who compete, there are bowling shoes for people who are left-handed that differ from those who are right-handed. There are bowling shoes available for adults, specifically males, specifically females, and even kids too!

· Men’s best bowling shoes:

o There are several kinds of best bowling shoes available for men.

You can find high quality merchandise at great prices. We suggest that you begin your search online and you can see for yourself how many kinds of men’s best bowling shoes are available on the market for you.

From Brunswick, to Circle, Dexter, Elite, Etonic, Linds and more, there are the best bowling shoes out there that we know you will love. Browse around online and you will see the exact pair you have been looking for.

In the coolest shades, form, design, and style there are excellent best bowling shoes for men available right now.

· Women’s best bowling shoes:

o There is a vast selection of the very best women’s bowling shoes available from several manufacturers depending on your preference.

The design, style, shape, pressure points, and colors are only some of the things that differ between the best bowling shoes for both men and women.

Virtually every manufacturer of men’s best bowling shoes will also sell women’s best bowling shoes and even the highest quality kids bowling shoes.

· Best bowling shoes for competitions:

o The best bowling shoes for high performance bowlers are definitely unlike the kinds of bowling shoes you would purchase for a regular player, teenager, or children. There are many factors that can improve and enhance your skills–so high performance bowlers should be sure to have the best bowling shoes for their high performance needs.

· The best bowling shoes for kids:

o If you are looking for the best bowling shoes for your children–there are several special lines of children’s best bowling shoes available by virtually every manufacturer.

o We know your kids will love the newly developed, best bowling shoes in many different colors, styles, and designs.

Because the manufacturers are continuously improving the available bowling merchandise, including the best bowling shoes ever, there are bowling shoes out there perfect for everyone!

Anne Clarke writes numerous articles for websites on gardening, parenting, recreation, education and home decor. Her background includes teaching and gardening. For more of her articles about bowling and bowling merchandise, please visit Best Bowling Shoes

To learn the gourmet cooking terms seems to be a must in the field of cooking. The gourmet cooking terms are of very much importance especially if you are currently enrolled in a gourmet cooking school, of course. But then again, the importance of learning these also goes the same for people who want to know more about it. This is despite of the fact the the application is much more important than in memorizing the terms. But to perfect the method, you should be familiar enough.

Learning What you Need to Learn

Throughout the internet, you can find a lot of sources on gourmet cooking terms. You may be able to be familiar with the term related to gourmet cooking but nothing beats the familiarity that comes with the practical application of those concepts. Below are some of the things that you need to do besides learning the gourmet cooking terms:

1. Get enrolled in a culinary arts school. If you are planning to be a professional chef, it would be a must to be in right process of your career. But if you are just seeking for some additional expertise but not a degree, these schools can be of great help in providing you the training and knowledge that you need.

2. Engage in culinary arts training and workshops. Training materials and workshops would really make a great help in the learning process. The terms and skills are all incorporated in training materials that you can get from gourmet cooking trainings and workshops. In addition, there are a lot of programs which could help you in acquiring the skills that you need. These programs can be learned right at your home. This is interesting since you do not have to leave your home to learn something.

3. Invest in your television. Aside from enrolling in schools and attending workshops on gourmet cooking, Interestingly, a lot of cooking terms can be learned right in your own television. A number of cooking shows often provide cooking terms that would also be helpful for you. Aside from the cooking terms, cooking shows also provide the procedures of gourmet cooking and some tips on handling the needed utensils and how to get the desired results in cooking your product. This, in a way, gives you a learning avenue at the comfort of your home.

With no doubt, the gourmet cooking terms can be searched easily using the internet. You can also find some useful tutorial on gourmet cooking over the internet. But then again, the fact remains that learning the terms of gourmet cooking is not enough. It is always the application that matters.

Abhishek is really passionate about Cooking and he has got some great Cooking Secrets up his sleeves! Download his FREE 88 Pages Ebook, “Cooking Mastery!” from his website http://www.Cooking-Guru.com/770/index.htm. Only limited Free Copies available.

So you reached the stage where you’ve decided to change your car. But you never seem to have enough money, so you’ll have to add to your existing debts. You don’t really want to borrow any more because it’s such a struggle to repay, but you really need a car

And now for the good news; it’s possible to save money on your next car…provided you know what to do.

1) Using A Loan

Most private cars are bought with borrowed money, either in the form of a personal loan or a special car finance scheme offered by a variety of dealers/lenders. Here’s how to get the best finance deal for your new vehicle.

a) Shop Around For The Best Interest Rate

Lenders are always competing for your business. It’s a buyer’s market, so don’t accept anything more than the going rate for someone of your financial status.

Use the internet to search for the lowest rate available. And bear in mind that lenders are constantly trying to attract new customers with special deals.

Doing your homework and comparing a range of different deals (always using the APR rate and the overall cost over the life of the loan) will allow you to get the best deal.

One advantage of using a personal loan rather than a car finance plan is that your loan and the rate of interest you’ll pay can be pre-approved before you go shopping. This means that you know how much the loan will cost you before you go shopping, and you won’t have to haggle with the car salesperson. The also removes the risk of them being able to confuse you into paying more for your car than you intended.

b) Improve Your Credit Rating

Having a good credit rating is one of the most important ways to save money on car loans (or any loan for that matter). The better your credit rating, the better deals you’ll be offered on your borrowing.

A good credit score = A low interest rate.

Again, take a look through the internet. There’s a wide range of information on how to build up your credit score.

For now, just remember than it’s important to pay all your loans on time (late payments of defaults will damage your credit score). It’s also important to keep your overall borrowing within reasonable limits. After all, from the lenders point of view, someone with heavy debts represents more of a risk.

c) Gather Together As Big A Deposit As Possible

The more money you have to put towards your new car the less you’ll have to borrow.

So in the months prior to changing your car, save as much money as you can to reduce the amount that you have to borrow. Every extra dollar you can put towards the deal may save you repaying two dollars.

It’s also important to take your current car into account. The more you can sell it for (or trade it in for), the less you’ll have to borrow to fund your new car. So with that in mind, here’s how to get the best trade in value.

• Take care of your car. Drive it carefully, and keep it well maintained and serviced
• Before you visit the car showroom, do your research. Find out how much your car is worth. Find out it’s trade value and the amount that a garage could sell it for. There figures will give you a rough idea how much the dealer should offer you for your old car
• Find out how much the dealer is willing to give you for it’s trade in value. And if a car dealer offers you a laughable sum for your old car just move on to the next dealership

Whatever happens, don’t haggle hard to get the best deal on your finance and then hand it back to the dealer by accepting a poor trade in value. It’s an unwritten rule of the car trade; the less the dealer makes on the sale of a car/the finance agreement, the less trade in value they’ll offer.

2) The Fund The Depreciation Trick

I must warn you that this technique is only for people who have an advanced understanding of money and finance.

If you can’t afford to buy your next car, and don’t want to pay the high rate of interest on most personal loans or car finance agreements, here’s what to do;

a) Choose a car that depreciates as slowly as possible. You can find this information in many car magazines or on the internet. Alternatively, you can work out your own figures using the prices charged for second hand models in your area.

So let’s say you decide to buy a new car that will be worth 66% of its value after three years (assuming it stays in good condition and covers an average amount of miles). That’s great.

It costs $30000. So you could get a personal loan at perhaps 8%, which might cost you $1100 per month over three years. But that seems rather steep, so you move on to the next stage of this idea.

b) Take a personal loan to cover the cost of the depreciation over the period you plan to keep the car. The car costs $30000 and will be worth $20000 when you sell it three years later. The depreciation will cost you $10000 over three years.

So you take a personal loan for $10000 over three years at a cost of $367 per month and move on to stage three.

c) Fund the rest of the cost by extending your mortgage on an interest only basis. The car costs $30000, you have $10000 from your personal loan, which leaves $20000 to find.

As a mortgage is secured borrowing (less risk for the lender) the interest rate is much lower. Assuming a low mortgage rate, another $20000 might cost $130 in interest per month.

Overall, it will cost you $497 per month to fund your car using this method.

Now you’ll notice that mentioned an interest only mortgage. This was to keep the cost of the loan down. All you need to do is to keep the debt from getting any bigger until you sell the car.

Three years later when you sell the car for $20000, you can use that to reduce your mortgage and get back to the position you were before you got the car.

So instead of it costing you $1100 a month (or an average of $544 a month when the sale price of the car is taken into account $1100 x 36 = $39600 – $20000 = $19600/36 = $544) throught the personal loan route, it will only have cost $497 each month. Saving an average of $47 per month (or $1692 over the three year period), and making it much easier to meet your monthly repayments.

In effect, what it does, is to save money by temporarily shifting the bulk of the price (the retained value) over to a long term loan (your mortgage) at a lower rate of interest, until you can repay it by freeing up the value of the asset (selling the car).

At the same time, the short term loss (the depreciation over 3 years) is repaid over the short term (three years) using the personal loan.

As I said, this is an advanced technique, but it will save you money on your next car. But let me say four things;

One: Only use it if you don’t have the money to buy your next car and don’t want to pay the high interest rates of a personal loan/car finance agreement.

Two: It will only work if the value of your property is enough to allow you to increase your mortgage.

Three: It also increases the risk that you won’t be able to pay your mortgage and your home will be repossessed.

Four: And there’s the risk that your could lose money if your car is written off and you don’t receive adequate compensation (but the same could happen if you borrow money to buy a car, regardless of how you borrow it).

3) Stay Ahead Of The Game

The ultimate way to save money on your next car is to be in a position to buy it without a loan. And that’s not as far fatched an idea as it might sound.

The idea is to gradually save money over the years that you keep the car, so that by the time you come to sell it, you’ll have enough money (along with the trade in value of your old car) to purchase your next car outright. You then repeat the process with the next car.

Let’s say you have a car worth $20000. You plan to keep it three years, by which time it will be worth $12000. Now allowing for inflation, your next car might cost perhaps $22000. That means you have to build up $22000 – $12000 = $10000 over the next three years. You will then be in a position to buy your next car without having to borrow any money.

This means you’ll have to save $270 a month ($10000/36 = $278) over the next three years. Open a special bank account and keep it specially for the purpose of renewing your car. Add a certain amount to it every month and you’ll never have to waste money on a car loan again. It’s also a good idea to choose a car that will hold as much of its value as possible during the time that you keep it.

But you may have noticed a slight problem with this idea. After all, if you have to repay a car loan every month, it’s going to be difficult if not impossible to save another $270 a month.

But there are two ways to get ahead of the game.

a) Save as much as you can each month, so that each time you change your car, you have to borrow less. Over time you’ll reach the position where you don’t have to borrow to buy a car.

b) Once you finish repaying a loan that you used to buy your car, keep it for as many years as possible. During that time, keep saving the money that you were using to repay the loan each month.

A example should help. You buy a car for $10000 using a three year personal loan for $367 per month. So after three years you own the car and have repaid the loan. So instead of changing the car or using the freed up income for other purposes, keep paying it into a different account for your next car.

After three more years you should have nearly $14000. That should be enough to replace your car with a similar size and model without using a loan. You are then ahead of the game.

All that’s left is to work out how much to save each month for your next car. Just use the following figures;

• Decide how long you want to keep your new car – 36 months
• How much it will be worth then – $8000
• The cost of your next car – $17000

In other words, you need to save 17000 – 8000 = 11000/36 = 305. So allowing for interest on your savings, you should aim to save $300 per month. And I can guarantee that you won’t resent the cost each month, especially when you know it’s going to benefit you and not swell some lender’s profits.

by Stuart Laing

Copyright (c) Get Out Of Debt.

Have you been struggling with debt for as long as you can remember? Are you ready to do something about it? Visit http://www.icanhelpyougetoutofdebt.com for free, impartial debt help information

This article may be freely distributed as long as the copyright, author’s information and active links are included.

Florida health insurance companies are now feeling the effects of the increased price transparency that the Internet brings. Now longer is it a process of days or even weeks to obtain multiple health insurance quotes from top Florida health insurance companies. The simplest and most efficient way to obtain health insurance in Florida is simply to make the top health insurance companies in the state (Golden Rule/United Healthcare, Aetna, and Humana) compete for your business!

If you cringe at the thought of a United Healthcare agent, an Aetna agent, and a Humana agent all clustering around you amongst a swarm of other Florida health insurance agents and trying to push their company’s policy upon you then read on; for health insurance shopping on the Internet has simplified everything. There are numerous Florida health insurance websites that offer Florida health insurance quotes but there are quite a few very important distinctions between the different types.

There are two main types of websites that offer Florida health insurance quotes to Florida health insurance shoppers: Marketing Organizations and Insurance Agencies.

Marketing Organizations do not sell insurance, are not regulated by any insurance department, and generally have no knowledge whatsoever concerning Florida health insurance. However, they can offer consumers a somewhat appealing service. How can they assist in purchasing health insurance?

They act as a middleman between Florida health insurance shoppers and Florida health insurance agents. When Mrs. Smith in Tampa, FL requests a health insurance quote then the marketing company sells her information as a lead to 5 or more Florida insurance agents.

Ignoring the privacy issues and the issue of the qualifications of the health insurance agents that will be purchasing your information there is the larger and more practical issue of do you really want to have 5+ insurance agents aggressively seeking your business?

Imagine that each health insurance agent is taught in their sales training to call you at least 5 times and email you at least 3 times before “giving up” on you as an insurance prospect: that means that you have received 25 phone calls and 15 emails from various insurance agents!

The second type of website that offers Florida health insurance quotes is the website that is run by an insurance agency (note that it is very important to find only an independent Florida insurance agency – meaning an agency that is not tied to working with only one health insurance company but can show you health insurance quotes from all of the top Florida health insurance companies. This is also why we will ignore the quasi third group of websites that offer Florida health insurance quotes: the health insurance carrier websites themselves. These can be a good service but very time consuming. There is a better way to shop for Florida health insurance. Read on-).

Most independent insurance agency websites offer a feature that will allow you to request Florida health insurance quotes. However, there is a much better way to shop for Florida health insurance! Rather than waiting for your request for health insurance quotes to be filled; look for a website that offers instant and LIVE Florida health insurance quotes from top Florida health insurance companies.

With instant LIVE Florida health insurance quotes you have the best of both worlds: you receive the benefits of competitive pricing by viewing the top Florida health insurance companies quotes side by side (the strong point of the marketing organization website model) as well as personal, expert help (the strong point of the insurance agency website model). Not to mention the added benefit of viewing the health insurance quotes from the different health insurance companies in the same format – enabling easy side by side comparisons of benefits. This allows for a true “apples to apples” comparison.

View up to 20 LIVE Florida health insurance quotes from top Florida health insurance companies like Aetna, Humana and Golden Rule/United Healthcare all in less than 20 seconds! View LIVE Florida health insurance quotes now and take advantage of the Internet’s price transparency!

Get free health insurance quotes by comparing all of the top health insurance plans in your zip code – in less time than it takes to brush your teeth!

Comparison shop multiple insurance companies instantly and in real time by viewing free Florida health insurance quotes: Aetna, Humana, United Healthcare and more.

Whether working, attending school, or simply in need of temporary childcare services, it is extremely important to find the venues and networks that can make the experience an extremely positive one for everyone involved.

Choose a Center You Can Trust

When considering a home childcare center, there will typically be one or two adults in attendance. It’s best they have a limited number of children, either their own, or those of clients so that your child or children can receive quality attention. Make sure you visibly check and approve their licensing and that home rules and regulations are in place and adhered to by everyone.

Traditional daycare centers are usually managed by multiple teachers and will take in children of all ages. These venues are registered by the state. The same level of scrutiny should apply to these venues as a home childcare business.

Make a Thorough Evaluation of Your Network

Familiarizing yourself with the center’s daily routines should always follow your choice of childcare venues. Should you bring snacks for your child or are they provided. Are there special clothes you need to bring? The childcare provider can provide you with a list of the things you should, and shouldn’t bring each day.

It’s not bad to have a back up plan for either of the childcare networks you choose. For simple things like if your get sick, a home childcare center works perfect. On the other hand, a full service center might offer more flexibility to fit your schedule and your family’s needs.

Interview Multiple Providers

Your research will no doubt reveal that childcare centers approach their rules differently. Some will have strict rules while others may not, such as flexibility in scheduling. Other childcare centers may have a more structured approach when it comes to education. So, it becomes extremely beneficial to examine as many options as possible.

Evaluate a Center with an Open Mind

Look closely at the staff and how well they treat the children. Do you observe a lot of patience and flexibility in their approach? Ask yourself if the center will be able to meet your child’s emotional and developmental needs.

Does the facility provide safe indoor and outdoor areas along with appropriate equipment? Are the bathrooms sanitary and do they provide areas for changing diapers? Are the rooms designed with bright and engaging colors?

Observe how the tables are made. Do they have rounded corners? Are first aid kits and snacks available for the children? Are cleaning material and medicines out of the reach of the children?

There are a thousand variables to consider. Knowing your child is being well taken care of by qualified professionals who have received proper early childcare training can go a long way in making sure you start and end your day with peace of mind.

Colin McLean writes about early childcare training and programs for Everest College. Find out how a quality education can help put you on the path to success.

Cats – we love them, however we aren’t so keen on the mess they sometimes leave for us to clean up. Cat Urine Stains in our homes are a big problem. The stain is incredibly hard to remove and the smell – disgusting is a word that comes to mind, but still doesn’t quite describe cat urine odor effectively. This is where toilet training a cat comes in.

But first, when your cat is urinating in your home there are 3 things we need to look at.

1. Why – what is causing your cat to pee inside on the carpet and furniture, rather than where it should be peeing. We need to address this as part of toilet training a cat.
2. How – we need to clean cat urine out of our carpet and furniture, clothes and any other item we own that our cat has taken a liking to. There is little point toilet training a cat if your home still stinks of cat pee from it’s previous mis-adventures.
3. When – NOW! This is when we say “enough is enough!” This is when we start to toilet train a cat.

Lets look at WHY. There are many reasons why your cat is peeing in all the wrong places. The first place to start is with a visit to your vet. You must make sure there is no medical reason first. Then we go on to look at our cats home life – are there other pets, new cats to the home, have you moved, has someone new come to live with you, or someone left. Any of these changes can be traumatic to a cat. Although none of these issues should affect us in toilet training a cat, but they should be addressed just the same. We don’t want a sad cat.

Now on to the HOW. There are soooo many different methods available to clean cat urine, some of them work, but unfortunately most don’t. Cat urine is one of the hardest stains to remove, I wont go into too much detail as I could fill 10 pages on the subject and this topic is about toilet training a cat, not how to get rid of cat urine. But I will say you need an effective cleaner that will penetrate deep into the fibers of your carpet, or furniture, or clothes or whatever else your cat is urinating on. You need a Natural Cat Urine Cleaner, one that will remove the stain, the smell and above all else, make sure the stain NEVER comes back. I use a recipe that I mix myself when I need it. This recipe uses everyday products that are readily available from your local store, it’s easy to make and even easier to use and the best part is the smell never returns.

This is the important one – NOW.

Successfully toilet training a cat can be done with cats and kittens, your kitten needs to be more than 8 weeks old. You can’t properly toilet train a cat that is less than 8 weeks old.

If you haven’t already, name your cat. Your cat needs to know its name, this is an essential part of toilet training a cat. You’ll get much better results if your cat knows its name.

Cats are very private animals when it comes to them peeing and pooing, they tend to hide their “business”. Before starting toilet training a cat, buy a litter tray so that the cat knows where it has to go. Make sure the litter tray you buy is enamel or plastic. Fill the litter with some soil, sawdust, sand and cat litters (commercial). These materials are essential for toilet training a cat.

If a kitten is raised with a mother who uses a litter tray for her business, the kitten automatically learns to use litter tray too. Try to familiarize your cat with the litter tray. Put your cat inside the litter tray after she’s finished eating or after she’s finished playing or even after she wakes up. This will help her to become familiar with the litter tray. Make sure that you put the litter tray in a hidden and quite place while toilet training a cat as like us, cats don’t like to be watched.

Praise the cat or acknowledge her after she uses the litter box. Make sure she knows you’re happy with her behaviour by patting on her head or some food rewards can also be used.

If your cat isn’t using the litter tray, then try to teach her by correcting her immediately after she has finished her business. This can be done by shouting loudly “NO” or more effectively with a squirt bottle full of water, give the cat a light spray at the time she pees or poos in the wrong place. This will help her in learning what is right and what’s wrong. Make sure you don’t use physical punishment as this is unnecessary and can ruin your relationship with the cat, it’s quite ineffective in toilet training your cat, she’ll look at you with complete contempt – not respect, and you’ll be back to square one.

The last stage of toilet training a cat is to get puss to actually use the toilet. To do this, move the litter tray towards the toilet slowly and steadily. Make sure that you make only slight changes as a big change to the place of litter tray can make your cat suspicious or can even confuse her. You eventually want the litter box sitting on the toilet, once your cat is used to this place you can remove the litter tray and your cat will keep coming to the toilet bowl.

Your mission of toilet training a cat is accomplished. You need to immediately clean up any accidents along the way, if you don’t get to it straight away your cat will be drawn back to the site of her accident, rather than the litter box and toilet training you cat will take longer.

Have you struggled to Clean Cat Urine & Get Rid of Cat Urine Odor permanently, then go to Cat Urine Off, where you’ll discover exactly how to Get Rid of Cat Urine Odor today!

Going out to eat is a favorite past time for most people. Whether it’s breakfast, lunch or dinner or all three, it’s an important form of American’s entertainment and socialization. You can go dining out with your family for a relaxing meal together. No one has to cook or clean up the dishes. It’s a time to spend with each other and enjoy good food and conversation. It allows you to re-connect with each other and find out about each other’s day. If you have kids, you should try to pick a restaurant that is kid-friendly and that has activities that are fun for the kids.

Kid-friendly restaurants can also be fun for the whole family. Dining out with kids can have different requirements. Most kids need some form of entertainment, especially young children. Many restaurants provide crayons and puzzles. Other kid-friendly restaurants have amusements and games, geared for several age groups, including adults. These types of restaurants are great for a child’s birthday party or a get together with out-of-town guests. They’re also great as a treat for a rainy day or good grades. Kid-friendly restaurants usually have kid-friendly menus, with dishes that include items like grilled cheese or pizza. These restaurants are family oriented and normally not a place you would take a date.

Dining out is also an important part of dating. You can choose an intimate restaurant for dinner, where you can concentrate on getting to know each other. Some restaurants include a dinner theater or entertainment and dancing. You might choose to have a quick lunch or drinks after work, to see if you enjoy the other person’s company. It creates less pressure on both parties and makes it easier to decline further offers. If you like each other, you can follow up by making plans to meet again. Maybe you could choose a movie, sporting event or dinner with friends.

Going out to eat with friends is another fun way to spend time together. Everyone has busy schedules, yet everyone has to eat. Dining out with your friends is a good way to stay close to them. You can take turns picking a restaurant. You can eat at your favorite pub, try a new ethnic spot or choose a five star restaurant, whatever you decide. Whether you get eat together weekly or less often, getting together with friends and sharing a meal together is the real treat.

For dining out guide, visit JP Pepperdine now.

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Halloween and Cats

When we think of Halloween there are a myriad of images that come to mind. Witches coursing across a full moon on a broomstick; vampires looking for a throaty feast and pumpkins carved with caricatures that either scare or bring a smile to your face. There’re Werewolves, ghouls and goblins that lurk in shadows just beyond the light. All topped off with the ancient practice of dressing in costume and painting our faces. So, how did the aristocratic cat become involved in such pagan ritual? I’m sure if you asked her, she would deny any responsibility for a willing association.

Cats have been associated with myth since they first came in from the cold to live with people around 5000 years ago. The mystery of their exquisite senses, such as their eyes, exceptional hunting instincts, independence and seeming aloofness have all contributed to the various myths that have originated in different cultures throughout history. Early Egyptians regaled then as gods and the Medieval Church burned them alive, believing they were the embodiment of Satan. They were thought of as ‘familiars’ of witches, that is, close companions who looked out and guarded a witch. Both a symbol of good luck and bad, depending which culture you might be visiting, cat behavior evokes the extremes of human nature.

So, is it any wonder that cats, especially black cats, should be an important icon of Halloween?

Halloween is a celebration of born in pagan mythology. It was believed that, the ’souls of the dead’ would rise from their graves to visit the living during the Celtic festival ‘Samhain’.

Halloween’s ghosts, goblins, cemetery effluvium, witches, black cats, bats, haunted houses, frightful skeletons, devils and scary stories originated from the Samhain festival (pronounced SOW-ehn) meaning “summer’s end”. It was celebrated by the Celtic people from Ireland to make themselves ready for the coming winter. During the festival of Samhain, the ’souls of the dead’ visited the homes of the Celts and on the Eve of Samhain tricks were played on humans in the vanishing sunlight that forebode winters shorter days. Supposedly, there were ghosts, goblins, black cats and witches flying about because the barriers between the natural and supernatural were broken during Samhain. The dead kept the secrets of the future and people would consult with them, asking for guidance.

The Festival of Samhain influenced the Christian celebration called “All Saint’s Day”, also called “All Hallow’s”. All Hallow’s was celebrated on November 1st and established in 700-800 AD by the Catholic Church. The night before “All Hallow’s” (October 31st) was called “All Hallow’s Eve”. The name was eventually shortened to All Hallow’en and then just Halloween.

Early American settlers from England brought rituals, superstitions and beliefs in ghosts and witches with them to the U.S. In the 1800’s, immigrants from U.K. came to the U.S. and brought their Halloween traditions with them. Germans brought their witchcraft stories and Haitian and Africans brought the voodoo beliefs about black cats, fire and witchcraft. The holiday was gradually made into a non-religious holiday in the U.S. by the late 19th century.

Today Halloween has evolved from the souls of the dead visiting homes to “Trick-or-Treaters” dressing in costumes as ghosts, witches, black cats and demons and pleading for candy… or an evil prank may be played on the non-sharing victim.

Some Black Cat Superstitions:

• Depending where you come from, a black cat crossing your path can mean good luck… or bad luck.
• There is a Medieval belief that black cats are witches in disguise, or witch familiars, creatures that aid in witchcraft.
• Fishermen’s wives would keep black cats to protect their husbands while at sea.
• When a sailor walked on the pier, a cat going ahead of him was good luck. If the cat crossed his path, his luck would be bad.
• Cats were kept on ships for good luck.
• If the ship’s cat approached a sailor, good luck would follow. If the cat approached but then diverted away, bad luck was to fall upon him.
• A cat thrown overboard was an omen for a storm and very bad luck.
• A black cat sneezing near a bride was a precursor for a happy marriage.
• The Druids thought black cats were humans being punished for evil deeds.
• Finally, some believed black cats could fly on broomsticks. Obviously, none of them had seen a witch, yet. The truth is that cats, black or otherwise, are not supernatural and bring no special luck… unless they choose to live with you. Being loving and loyal creatures, her choice would make you very lucky.

October 16th is National Feral Cat Day

Everyone has seen them. In alley ways, at the back of restaurants, often scurrying, low to the ground, at dusk or dawn. In rural areas they may inhabit barns or hedgerows on the edge of a yard. Some 70 million feral cats roam the edge of society in the U.S. alone. Human sensitivities suggest that they live a difficult life buffeted by the forces of nature in a continual and all consuming search for nourishment, safety and shelter. It’s not a life that most people would choose to live. But then, in today’s societies most people have lost the tools to truly survive in the wild without social structures to provide for them. Cats accept their fate without complaint, but, face a complication exasperated by their feral life. Wild cats are cats who are not, and have never been domesticated. They live in environments that exert natural procreation and population controls. These controls don’t exist in feral cat environments. The result is a feral cat population that has literally exploded. This boom in the numbers of feral cats causes problems for both feral cats and people:

• For the cats there are problems surrounding the basic cat instincts of territoriality, hunting habits, their solitary nature, and mating and sexuality urges.
• For people feral cats can have a negative impact on environments in which cats are new members. Reduction in the numbers of rats and other rodents might be welcome, but the impact on birds, squirrels and other welcome creatures that frequent your backyard might not be appreciated.
  The feral cat situation is a problem best solved by the intervention of human ingenuity. There are those who advocate a draconian/medieval response by tracking down and killing feral cats. Fortunately, such a solution is not favored by most who have a respect for life in all its forms. What is needed is an approach which anyone can embrace. Trap-Neuter-Release programs are just such an approach. Feral cats are captured, neutered and then released back into the environment they came from. Then voila!! Populations reduce naturally and the mating rituals are eliminated which leaves the cat to live a more stress-free life. What is required for the success of TNR programs is for people to participate. Participation is easy because it doesn’t require a compromise of ethical values. It does take time and effort. But, even the effort can be made easier when implemented by a neighborhood of friends or it could become a classroom project for students.

In celebration of our homeless cat friends National Feral Cat Day has been designated as October 16th. The following is borrowed from Alley Cat Allies, an organization that is dedicated to relieving the problems associated with feral cat populations. A visit to their site is a good start to becoming aware of not only the problems of feral cats, but how each of us can contribute to its solution.

“On October 16th, National Feral Cat Day (NFCD), Alley Cat Allies will launch a campaign to change the policies that kill feral cats and kittens. This year, along with newly developed materials to help you introduce the public to feral cats, we begin shedding light on the archaic and entrenched animal control systems throughout our country-systems that do not protect the lives of stray and feral cats.

Our message is edgier than in the past because the time has come to stir people up, to help public officials discover the facts about cats, and to begin changing animal control policies.

Alley Cat Allies implores you to take action: talk to your public officials, ask questions, engage residents to question animal control policies, and discuss how animal control practices are hurting or helping cats in your area.

Bringing the facts to the public’s attention is our charge for 2007 NFCD.”

Robert J Gallegos, author of http://www.catlover-giftsworld.com a web site dedicated to proper cat care with quality cat lover gifts based on an understanding of cat behavior, instincts and the unique requirements for healthy cats as pets. Cats are the newest of animals to be domesticated and still have one paw in the wild. It’s a major reason why they’re so mysterious and resistant to human expectations.

Robert is a life long lover of cats. He is dedicated to sharing his understanding of the cat experience, reducing the epidimic feral cat situation, and helping cat lovers to provide the best care for their cats.

Many dog owners are bewildered when they hear their dog growl, bark, or take an aggressive stance. Unfortunately, many of these animals end up in shelters because the owners could no longer live with the dog. Would you give up on your child that easily?

Of course not! When a baby is brought home to his new family, everyone understands that the baby is learning your language and teaching you his. We begin to understand our child?s cry or garbled sounds because we focus on trying to understand him.

Your dog has his own language as well. Understanding dog aggression and your dog?s language will help prevent undesirable behavior and dog bites. Let?s begin our understanding of dog aggression with the acronym DOG BITES:

Dominant

Opportunity

Game

Boy/Girl

Injury

Territorial

Escape

Dominant aggression is also known as competitive aggression. It is brought on when one dog feels challenged for his social position by another dog (or human). Dogs are pack animals. Social order helps feed and protect the pack.

The dog with the highest social order is called the ?alpha? dog. The alpha dog gets all the perks such as eating whatever he wants, sleeping wherever he wants, and dictating to the others in the pack. He decides when the others get to eat and sleep.

Even owners of a single dog may observe dominant aggression since the dog sees the owner as a member of his pack. An example of this type of aggression is demonstrated by the dog who lays on a favorite chair and growls at the owner when told to get down.

The aggression is a challenge for social position and dibs for the seating arrangement. How the owner reacts to the challenge determines whether the dog becomes more aggressive or submissive in the situation.

Here?s a less obvious challenge to an owner?s dominance in the pack?

You are sitting in the living room watching television. Your dog comes up to you and slides his head under your hand. You think your dog is adorable and wants your attention, so you pet him as requested.

Here is the punch line to this situation. Petting is similar to licking. Submissive, less dominant dogs in the pack lick the more dominant dogs. In other words, you were challenged and responded with an ok to be the submissive of the challenge.

Petting (or licking) behavior does not always signify submissiveness. There are other situations when dogs lick, but we will not pursue that topic here. What we will offer here is a suggestion on how to respond to the situation above.

Gently cup your hand over your dog?s muzzle. Rub behind his ears with a little pressure. These actions closely resemble social order biting. Dominant dogs bite the ears, nose, and neck areas of less dominant dogs to keep them in line. Just watch a mother dog with a litter of pups! You?ll see the behavior right away.

Opportunity aggression is aggression that is intended for another dog or person; however, it is redirected to a closer dog or person because the opportunity to attack is better. An example of this type of aggression is demonstrated when trying to break up two fighting dogs. Sometimes, the person breaking up the fight gets bit.

Caution is the best approach to take with opportunity or redirected aggression. If a dog is agitated, it is better to maintain a safe distance until the dog feels less vulnerable and relaxes.

Game aggression is predatory in nature. A dog will chase anything that moves away from it. The dog is a natural hunter of small game. When something runs from a dog, the dog?s chase, hunt, capture, and kill instinct takes over.

A human cannot out run a dog. If a dog attacks, the best course of action is to lie down and play dead. This action is a submissive move.

You have probably seen a dog lie down and bear his vulnerable belly to a more dominant dog. He is communicating to the more dominant dog that he is not a threat to the more dominant dog.

Boy/girl aggression is all about the hormones! This type of aggression is also known as sexual aggression. The male dog protects his female from other dogs and potential threats to his progeny.

Female dogs, however, also display this sexual aggression when they are pregnant, nursing, or in heat. Even the most docile female may growl or attempt to bite anyone who dares to pick up one of her pups too soon!

Sexual aggression is reduced through spaying and neutering. Most veterinarians recommend spaying or neutering your dog during the 6-12 months of age.

Injury aggression is aggression brought on by injury or pain. You might easily see this type of aggression in a dog that has been hit by a car or one who is suffering from age-induced arthritis.

Injury or pain aggression is best handled by seeking medical care for the dog. Try not to touch the painful areas unless absolutely necessary for therapy or to get your dog to safety. Diet, activity, medications, and bedding may help alleviate the pain and therefore, the aggressive behavior.

Territorial aggression is aggression displayed to protect the pack?s territory. The dog?s territory may be much different from your thoughts of the house and backyard. Indeed, if you take him on any walks, he may even consider the whole neighborhood his territory!

When a dog is in a new environment, he may be ?territorial? because he isn?t sure of his surroundings. This is why a dog that is boarded may be ?cage aggressive.? The dog is protecting the small territory of the cage from intruders.

When this is the case, let the dog have his space. He is stressed out and will feel protected in his own area.

Territorial aggression may also be used to protect the pack from perceived external threats. A protective dog is one that shows aggression toward other animals or people when he perceives a threat to his owner or other members of the pack.

A dog may also show territorial aggression with possessions. He will protect anything that he perceives as his. This includes food, bedding, toys, affection, and anything else that is part of his world.

Escape aggression is also called fear aggression. A dog that is afraid will often shake. The ears will probably be all the way back on the head and the tail will be low. He feels powerless and puts up a fight because he feels trapped like he has no where to escape.

This type of aggression may also be brought on by the fear of punishment. Imagine someone standing much taller than you with his hand raised above his head. Is he going to hit me?

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Walking straight toward a dog, giving direct eye contact, or makig sudden movements can trigger fear aggression. Always move slowly around dogs that are afraid. Never give direct eye contact or move right towards a fearful dog.

About the Author: Julie Butts is a Kennel Manager and author of http://www.all-about-small-breed-dogs.com, an online guide for selecting, owning, and raising a small breed dog. Her website is dedicated to small breed dog lovers and includes information on breeds, training, behavior, grooming, supplies, books, gifts, and more.

Read more about dog behavior and dog aggression.

Health insurance is a type of insurance where the insurer pays for the medical expenses of the insured when the insured becomes sick due to illness or injury. Today, there are several types of health insurance to choose from. Individual health insurance, group health, worker?s compensation, and government health plans such as Medicare and Medicaid are some of the different types of health insurance plans.

Individual health insurance plays a significant role in the health care system of the United States. It is an ideal option for people who do not have access to job-based coverage. Of the different types of health insurance, individual health insurance provides coverage for an individual or to an individual and their family.

Fee-for-service insurance, managed care plans, open enrollment in managed care plans, association-based health insurance, and high-risk pools are some of the different individual health insurance options available in the market. Compared to group health insurance, individual health insurance is highly expensive. Benefits of individual health insurance are fewer than group insurance.

Individual health insurance plans can be obtained directly from insurance companies. The insurance company to whom you apply will ask you to provide personal information, including your medical history. Based on your health status, the company determines whether you qualify for an individual health insurance plan or not. Once you are qualified, a premium is charged based on your age, income, and medical history.

Choosing an individual health insurance plan is an important decision. You must choose a plan that meets your needs as well as budget. Prior to buying individual health insurance coverage it is necessary to consider several options. It is very essential to compare the coverage and cost of insurance plan as it may vary from company to company. Also, make sure that the selected insurance plan provides the kind of coverage that’s right for you.

Finding an affordable individual health insurance is a bit confusing and time consuming. So it is advisable to consult an insurance agent or a broker who will help you to find the individual health insurance that suits you.

Health Insurance provides detailed information on Health Insurance, Health Insurance Quotes, Affordable Health Insurance, Health Insurance Plans and more. Health Insurance is affiliated with Health Insurance Company Ratings.

For those starting out in bowling who have a good score, it is possible for them to consider trying their skills in an amateur bowling tournament. It not only brings about a confidence but also pays out a good amount in prizes. The amateur tournament is made up of two divisions and has many breaks for those with handicaps.

The amateur bowling tournament started in the later months of 1977. It was created to unite bowlers of all skill levels into one great tournament. They realized that not all bowlers could throw a 200 or higher game and thus is the reason behind the amateur tournament. Not only can you find the amateur bowling tournament in North America but also internationally. This brings together other nationalities with a love of bowling. There is also a senior amateur bowling tournament for those over the age of sixty who still have the bowling spark in them also.

The amateur bowling tournament is no one of the largest tournaments around. It is the only bowling club that gives those participating assurance of winning a minimum amount. Depending on which branch of the amateur bowling tournament participated in will decide what prize is won. It also determines the amount of players participating in each division.

The amateur bowling tournament office is located in California and has since branched out to other areas of the country. This allows for more people to join in the amateur bowling tournament than in the past. There is a Masters Division and a Classic Division in the amateur bowling tournament. Your score will determine what amateur bowling tournament division you participate in. Most amateur bowling players fall into the classic division.

The amateur bowling tournament is designed for those who are bowling under 200 but may allow those with a 220 average in. The Masters Division was originally designed for those joining the amateur bowling tournament having a 190 to 220 average. This was eventually raised to those with a 225. The classic division in the amateur bowling tournament is was originally for those bowling with a 189 or lower but has since been raised to 199 or less.

Since its beginning, the amateur bowling tournament has paid out in the hundreds of millions of dollars for prizes. This means the amateur bowling tournament has paid out more than any other bowling club in existence. This amateur bowling tournament payout is even higher than the professional bowlers association that has been around for half a century. The amateur bowling tournament has only been happening for a quarter of a century. This is a feat within itself.

If you are really into the sport of bowling, you should consider trying your luck with an amateur bowling tournament. You may find that your skills are better than you thought they were. You can also learn a great deal from those who have participated in the amateur bowling tournament in previous years. Being in an amateur bowling tournament will not only be exciting but lots of fun also.

Jordan Matthews is an internet entrepreneur with a 239 average, who enjoys bowling at local ABT tournaments every weekend. Visit Jordan’s Bowling Website for more information about bowling in tournaments and improving your scores.

Home cooks of all skill levels can save money by using their kitchens more efficiently. By modifying cooking habits, making better use of existing appliances and purchasing new appliances that are energy-efficient, home cooks can save money, extend the working life of cookware and lessen the time spent cooking. These tactics are part of Green Cooking, which is about reducing waste, using less energy, less water and making less noise during the cooking process. Incorporating Green Cooking principles, the average household can minimize their home’s energy consumption and save hundreds of dollars per year on utility bills.

Using the following tips, you can maximize the efficiencies of your kitchen’s appliances and refine your cooking habits to save energy, save money and “cook green.”

1. Full-size ovens are not very efficient when cooking small quantities of food. When cooking small-to medium-sized meals, use a smaller toaster oven. In general, the smaller the appliance, the less energy used, so choose the smallest appliance suited to your cooking task. The more energy-efficient an appliance is, the less it costs to run.

2. Keep kitchen appliances and cookware clean. When surfaces are clean, you maximize the amount of energy reflected toward your food, cooking more quickly and evenly.

3. Utilize residual heat. Turn off the oven or electric stove top a few minutes before the end cooking time. The appliance will remain hot enough to complete the cooking process.

4. Energy-efficient appliances may sometimes cost more to purchase, but savings on utility bills will be realized in the long run. Try to gradually replace your old appliances with more energy-efficient models. Look for appliances with the Energy Star designation indicating that the appliance is up to current energy-efficiency standards. New and better appliances continue to be developed, cooking food faster and with greater convenience. And faster cooking times mean less energy use.

5. If you have an electric stove top, make sure your pan completely covers the heating element and is the same size as the burner. Use flat-bottomed pans that make full contact with the elements. For example, a six-inch pan on an eight-inch element wastes 40 percent of the element’s heat output. With gas burners, make sure the flame is fully below the pan; otherwise, heat is lost and energy is wasted. The moral is, if you use a small pan, use a small burner and vice versa.

6. Don’t preheat the oven unless a recipe (such as bread or pastry) requires it. A good rule of thumb is that any food with a cooking time of more than 60 minutes can be started in a cold oven.

7. No peeking. Every time you open the oven door, it can lower the internal temperature as much as 25 degrees. Use a timer to set the cooking time, and be sure your oven window is clean enough for you to see how your dish is progressing. Be sure to check the seal on your oven door to make sure it is working properly.

8. In the oven, stagger dishes at different rack levels to ensure proper air flow. Good air flow helps the oven work more quickly and efficiently. Rearrange oven shelves before you turn the oven on. Doing it after the oven is hot not only wastes heat, but is an easy way to burn yourself.

9. Piggyback dishes on top of each other, either by using the same heat source for two or more chores, or by baking such items as cookies using retained heat from prior baking or roasting. Multitask wherever possible. Cookware such as a Chinese steamer, can cook different dishes on different tiers simultaneously and inexpensively.

10. Choose your cookware carefully. Glass and ceramic cookware conduct and retain heat better than metal. If a recipe calls for a metal baking pan, you can usually switch to glass or ceramic which will allow you to lower the cooking temperature by 25 degrees.

11. By warming food first (either on the counter or in the microwave-it uses less energy than an oven) you can cut down on the amount of time your oven is on.

12. Take Cover! Water boils more quickly and foods cook faster if there is a lid on the pan, keeping the heat in. Also, don’t boil more water than you will be using.

13. Cooking frozen foods uses more energy – thaw them out first. Thawing in the refrigerator is best because it helps the efficiency of the refrigerator, cooling it down and reducing the energy required to keep it at its working temperature.

14. Cook with a microwave when possible. Microwaves use between one-fifth and one-half as much energy as conventional stoves. They are most efficient at cooking small portions and for defrosting. To cook food in the microwave faster, place it on the outer edges of a rotating tray rather than in the center, allowing more microwaves to interact with the food. Food cooks faster as the surface-to-volume ratio increases. When cooking potatoes, for example, thinner slices will cook faster than cubed or quartered sections. During warm weather when air conditioning is in use, microwaves generate less radiant heat reducing the energy load on your air conditioner.

15. Use pressure cookers. They use 50-75 percent less energy than ordinary cookware and it’s the easiest and fastest method of cooking..

16. Induction cooking uses 90% of the energy produced compared to only 55% for a gas burner and 65% for traditional electric ranges. Induction cook tops have the same instant control as gas and are the fastest of all cook top types to heat and cook food.

17. Use electric kettles to boil water. They consume half the energy needed to boil water on the stove.

18. Turn down the heat after water boils. Lightly boiling water is the same temperature as a roaring boil.

19. Toaster ovens, although generally not very well insulated are good choices for small to medium portions of food that cook relatively quickly. For baking and broiling, they use about one-third the energy of a regular oven.

20. Slow cookers also reduce energy use in cooking. Slow cookers such as crock-pots will cook an entire meal for about 17 cents worth of electricity.

21. Convection ovens consume up to one-third less energy than standard ovens. Heated air is continuously circulated by the oven’s fan, for more even heat and reduced cooking times.

22. Pressure-cooking is the easiest and fastest green cooking method. A new pressure cooker can reduce your energy consumption for cooking by more than 50%.

23. Electric skillets, like a deep griddle with walls, can steam, fry, saute, stew, bake, or roast a variety of food items – some can even double as serving dishes.

24. Soak dinnerware and cooking utensils that are heavily caked with dried food in cold water with a small amount of soap. This eliminates the need for prolonged scrubbing and using large amounts of water.

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The tools are almost as important to the recipe as the ingredients and the words in the recipe. Picking the right tools can sometimes be a daunting task..

Its always best to start with the basics such as vegetable peelers, knives, cutting board, and utensils and plates to put the food on. Starting with a basic understanding of how basic tools work is the first step to being able to understand and know how to buy different gourmet tools.

Even these simple tools need to be understood, and making sure to spend money on quality tools is the first step to becoming a gourmet chef. A chef who doesn’t know how to properly use a carving knife, or how to operate a vegetable peeler isn’t really a chef until they can master those tools. These are some of the most basic tools a gourmet chef needs to know about.

One a chef has mastered these particular tools its time to move onto more complicated tools. For example many gourmet chefs use mandolines as a means of chopping up vegetables.

These are much like shredders, except instead of having little pieces of metal jutting from the metal base, there is one long blade in the center of the device and the vegetable is scraped over the blade giving thinner and more precise cuts. Its much like a meat slicer, except for vegetables and even cheeses. It’s tools like these that separate simple tools such as graters from the more complex ones.

Mixers can also be a great gourmet cooking tool. Professional mixers come with a variety of different attachments for pastry, vegetable fillings, and even bread making attachments.

Different ingredients need to be handled differently and different attachments on certain professional mixers will allow for things such as egg whites to be handled more delicately than other items. Many professional mixers can be pricey, but many gourmet chefs emphasize the need for costly tools in order to properly propel the craft of cooking forward.

Buying the necessary attachments and spending the money it doesn’t hinder a cook and allows them to be as open minded and creative as possible because they have the needed implements to do so.

Measuring and timing tools are another crucial tool that must be bought and handled correctly. It’s best not to buy cheap measuring cups and spoons because sometimes these plastics will not hold up to the dishwasher.

Its best to buy metal or another kind of material because plastic is usually never sturdy enough. Also make sure that your tools are as accurate as they can be. The more accurate the better measurement, and the better the recipe will be!

Its important to pay attention and shop at quality cooking tool stores, stores that mainly focus in selling these cooking tools only, rather than chain stores that do not specialize in cooking tools.

In truth its best to pay attention to what you buy.

The more you pay attention to this, the better your dishes will be and the more knowledge you will gain about the craft. Also you will be able to teach other people and explain to them how to

use a seemingly confusing contraption.

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By the end of 2004 blogs had established themselves as a key

part of online culture. “Blog readership shoots up 58% in

2004 6 million Americans get news and information fed to

them through RSS aggregators But 62% of online Americans do

not know what a blog is.” – Pew Internet & American Life

Project

Tip #1 – How and Where Should I Start?

You should begin your blog with a free blog hosting service

such as Blogger (http://www.blogger.com), or other similar

free services such as JournalHome.com, LiveJournal.com or

Blog-City.com. The learning curve for using such free

services allow you to spend more on developing your content

rather than worrying about the advanced areas of scripting,

hosting, or programming.

Tip #2 – The Things You Should Decide to Write About

Although not a required prerequisite for you in order to

write a blog, it is highly recommended to try to find a

topic to write about based on your level of interest and

knowledge. The higher your level of interest, the easier it

is for you to get your quality content posted on your blog.

Always try to choose an area which you can enthusiastically

write about on a daily basis.Try to pay attention to a niche

which suites you well. A niche is basically a targeted

product, service, or topic.

Tip #3 – Always stay on topic.

Opinions are generally accepted but the content of the items

in the blog should all relate to a general theme. The

majority of your readers will be interested in the content

that relates to a specific defined theme or loosely defined

area of interest. Define a topic and try not to run too far

away from it. This will ensure that you create a loyal

following of interested readers.

Tip #4 – Information is king, be informative.

If you are attempting to create the impression that you are

knowledgeable about a specific industry or sector, be sure

that you stay current on news. Checking your facts before

you’re giving out an opinion or a product review is always a

good idea, your reputation is at stake. If by any chance

you’re utilizing other people’s articles for you blog

content, ensure that you follow the terms of usage defined

by the author.

Tip #5 – Old news is not news, but old information can be

recycled and made new.

While blogging everyday can be

strenuous and time consuming, it is important that the

information presented is current and accurate. Information,

articles or any other archived resources can be recycled /

modified to add more substance to your content. As long as

they’re relevant and informative, there’s no reason why it’s

not a good approach.

Tip #6 – Be disciplined and stick to a fixed posting

schedule.

Realizing that blogging requires time and effort,

don’t create unrealistic expectations and be unable to

deliver. If you have worked hard to develop an audience and

a community you don’t want to lose them due to lack of

communication. If time is not on your side, take advantage

of tonnes of automatically updating contents which are

available for your blog. Looking at the constantly updating

nature of RSS feeds, other RSS feeds from similar topic can

be inserted within your blogging post.

Tip #7 – Posting Frequency.

If your blog content is updated frequently, search engines

will tend to spider the pages at regular intervals. Updating

your blog daily not only keeps your blog more interesting to

readers, but it also gives your blog fresh content on a day

to day making it more appealing to search engines. To keep

your blog traffic and retain your visitors interest it is a

must to update your blog daily with multiple entries. You

should try to update your blog everyday with at least 2 – 3

or more daily entries, depending on your daily schedule.

Tip #8 – Quantity matters.

In order to attract the attention of search engines, you

will need to produce a relevant amount of content and

information. A headline or simple sentence is not going to

generate the interest of readers or help with search engine

ranking. Be sure to archive old blog posts to develop a

large portal of similarly-themed content.

Tip #9 – Clarity & simplicity / Short & Concise.

Keep your posts and blog entries clear and easy to

understand. Simplicity always produce better results at the

end of the day.

Aside from the lengthy article a week for syndication and

publication your blog entries should be short & concise (if

you can help it). Should you insist on partaking on the

lengthy road, try to maintain a clean paragraphing style,

proper spacing, use different size, color and bold for your

titles as well as the subtitles. Use bullet points, go

straight to the point and never run out of topic. Insert

images to spice up things if you’re an avid fan of long

posts.

Tip #10 – Utilize the “blockquote” and “code” tags.

Being one of the few most underutilized blogging formatting

tags, these 2 items can help you on emphasizing certain

points, in the most efficient and striking way. Formatting

is simple and straightforward. Just get your message into a blockquote tag, and your message will apear

distinctively different from the rest of your text, thus

gets more attention which it deserves. Take note that the

formatting for these 2 tags differ from blog to blog

depending on how the owner defines the tag in the CSS

(Cascading Style Sheets).Click the below link if you want to read more about CSS.

http://www.w3schools.com/css/default.asp

Tip #11 – Keyword-rich.

If the goal of your blog is to increase your visibility,

include related keywords in the title of the blog. Use the

title as a headline to attract interest. Each item post

should have a title that will attract attention but still be

relevant to the post. The title should be no longer than

10-12 words. Experiment with the titles if you must,

possibly try to avoid general and ordinary titles. Try to

include extraordinary and innovative titles to grab the

readers’ attention.

Tip #12 – Spell checking and proof-reading.

It only takes a few extra moments and can save you from

having to make embarrassing explanations. The hazards of

Internet is that if you’re too late to correct your mistake,

most likely it’s already been crawled by the search engines

and read by many. It is extremely essential to think / proof

read carefully twice or even thrice, about what you post

before doing so. Take note of your language and grammar.

Tip #13 – RSS Feeds

RSS to a blog is like fuel to cars. Mostly every single free

blogs or bloggin software out there will have an automatic

RSS feed generating feature. Although it’s most unlikely

that you’ll find one without a RSS feature, simply leave it

and find a new one, if you happen to come across one without

it.

Tip #14 – The essence of the Internet – Traffic.

It’s no

secret. You must have traffic to realize the definition of a

blog.. There are numerous ways to build traffic. Paid and

free advertising, viral marketing, search engine marketing,

RSS/XML feeds, word-of-mouth, submitting to numerous blog

and RSS directories, etc. RSSBlogsubmit (

http://www.rssblogsubmit.com) provides a submission service

for your Blog & RSS feeds. You should always use your blog

URL address in the signature of your email, forum

discussions, message boards, or any other communication

media. Never forget to share your blog to your friends,

colleagues, and any other invidious that you know of.

Tip #15 – Track Your Blog

Tracking your blog does not have to be overly sophisticated

usually a simple free page counter like StatCounter.com,

ActiveMeter.com, Extremetracking.com or Sitemeter.com will

do the trick. Install (copy/paste) the code into the html of

your blog template and start tracking your visitors. Its

better to use a service which gives you advanced traffic

analysis, such as keyword tracking information, referral

information, and search engine information. Visitors,

returning visitors, and unique visitors should be standard

for any page counter service you choose.

Tip #16 – Make use of your Blog’s statistical and tracking information.

Believe it or not, your visitors’ information

from your tracking scripts will provide you priceless

information on how you can attract more readers. Keep note

on the keyword terms used from search engines which bring

you traffic. You can identify relevant closely related

topics which you can venture into and add more variety into

your blog, yet staying very much in topic. Simply put, more

topic coverage and more variety = more traffic. You may

analyze your tracking information further on how you can

strategize your blog’s content. You can also apply some

keyword optimization strategies here.

Tip #17 – The essence of your Blog is your Audience, listen

to them.

Always interact with your readers who post comments

on your blog. Reply with a brief thank you note or just

simply attend to their questions if they have any. It’s a

proven fact when there’s a direct human interaction and

knowing the fact that there’s a “real human” at the other

end of the blog makes most of them coming back. If your

audience provide suggestions, comments or feedbacks, take

them constructively and inform them if you have any desires

of implementing such ideas on your next update. And of

course, don’t forget to thank them for their ideas. If it’s

a great idea, why not throw in a free gift? Mention their

website in your blog?

Tip #18 – Create and increase the “Why Must I Return” Value to Your Blog.

Everyone knows the fact that Blogs get a huge level of

returning visitors because of its constantly updated

content. Why don’t you add more interesting items to that

return value by having fixed periodical posts / offers, e.g.

Monday Top 10 Tips, Picture of the Week, Free Bonus of the

Month, Free Daily Wallpapers, etc. to give them the absolute

excuse to return to your blog. As long as you can

efficiently and appropriately increase that Return Value

constantly, it is mostly guaranteed that you’ll be getting

tonnes of repeated visitors, period.

An advance notice, prelaunch announcement or anything

similar to that also can act as a short term return value

strategy. Encourage readers to comment on your such notices

/ posts. Experiment and play around with this idea.

Tip #19 – Multiple blogs.

It never hurts to use multiple blogging accounts to attract

more people. You can even have multiple blogs within

Blogger.com itself, but you may also want to try different

free blogging services such as JournalHome.com,

LiveJournal.com, Blog-City.com, etc. Should you have the

urge to have multiple similar duplicates of your blog just

to gain more traffic, it is wise to avoid it as search

engines / feed directories might translate that as excessive

redundant information which simply brings you trouble, and

you’re tend to get penalized, banned or even accused of

spamming.

Tip #20 – Digital Art, Creative Graphics.

Another proven fact – Monotonous and continous display of text will make your

readers run away! Try to include non- advertising graphics,

pictures, photos, and art in your blog entries, but try to

keep them at a limit. Too many graphics also mean slower

loading time and messy text and graphical combination. You

don’t want your blog to look messy. Most of the time,

graphics can bring your blog to life. Pictures can make

boring texts interesting no matter how long it is. Graphical

elements are by far the fastest message delivering element

available on the net today. It may deliver various messages

by a split second of a look.

Tip #21 – Maintain a Personal Blog.

A blog is most successful when it is kept personal. Try to

include personal experiences which relates to the topic of

your blog entry. Stay away from the business style of

writing. Write with a more personal style and use first-

person narratives. Share product reviews and personal

endeavors, instead of trying to make it sounds like you’re

selling.

Tip #22 – Credibility & Popularity.

As thing progresses, things need to change in order to cope

with the flow and nature of development. If your number of

readers are reasonably huge, and still using a free blogging

service to get your messages out, you may want to consider

getting your own domain name and hosting plan to have a more

personalized Blog.

Domain names and hosting plans are pretty much

straightforward. Research is all what it takes to get the

best of all the available options. For the most highly

recommended comprehensive listing of Free Blogging software

out there, drop by at http://www.opensourcecms.com. This is

by far the best place to drop by if you want to get your

research done about which blogging software to choose.

Reviews, ratings, public votes, demos, etc are provided. And

the best thing is, all of them are Open Source, which means

they are totally free. Try going through the server

requirements for each software before purchasing your

web hosting.

Tip 23# – Customize the look of your Blog

If you happen to be using one of the Free blogging services

out there, you might notice that most of us are using the

same template again and again for our blogs. It is well

understood that not everybody has the technical knowledge to

change the layout as how they want it to be, but if you have

the knowledge, by all means try to customize it and make it

look DIFFERENT. You can grab that extra attention, if you’re

different in certain ways. Create that image for yourself.

Tip #24 – Blog and Make Money

Once your blog has gained some real momentum and your blog

traffic is increasing then it is time to start thinking

if you want to turn your traffic into profit. Some of the

recommended income generating sources are as follow :-

Google Adsense, Amazon Associate program (www.amazon.com),

Blogads.com, Crispads.com, Tagword.com, Affiliate Programs

and any advertising related text links can be your place to

start off.

Final #Tip – Conclusion.

Following these blogging tips should make your blogging

experience much more rewarding. Blogging is generally done

out of interest and enthusiasm and sometimes for income

generating purposes. The flexibility of blogging will never

cease to expand. Through time, dedication, and persistence

you will be rewarded with all the royalties of blogging.

About the Author

John Teh is an internet blogger enthusiast, exposed to the fun and the extreme possibilities of blogging on the net. Get to know more about the author at his homepage.
http://www.rssblogsubmit.com

If you are not a college football fan and could care less if you never see a bowl game in your life, you might wonder what all of the fuss is about. If you have a red-blooded male in your life, just ask him.

There will be 34 NCAA bowl games this year and the fuss in each one will be about prestige and money, big money, as in more than a collective $139 million for the participating teams and their respective conferences.

The actual bowl payouts reflected below add up to $127+ million, but the actual $139+ million figure arises because of some additional payouts for participating teams beyond the automatic qualifiers from the 6 major BCS conferences-the Atlantic Coast, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Pacific-10 and Southeastern.

A team must win 6 games to be bowl-eligible, according to NCAA standards. Some of the qualifying teams automatically receive bowl bids, and others are asked to participate in the less significant bowl games.

Just about every news organization that publishes the bowl-game lineups does so by the date of the contest, the first (on December 19th) to the last (the Bowl Championship Series title game on January 7th).

I choose to do it this year by the importance of the bowl based on its payout first, and then the prominence of the game based on its participants. The first 5 bowl games listed comprise the prestigious BCS super-contests with the biggest payouts.

Here is the complete lineup for the 2009 season (which stretches into 2010).

1) $17 million – The BCS National Championship Game between Alabama (13-0) and Texas (13-0) on Jan. 7.

2) $17 million – Sugar Bowl with Florida (12-1) and Cincinnati (12-0) on Jan. 1.

3) $17 million – Fiesta Bowl with Texas Christian (12-0) and Boise State (13-0) on Jan. 4.

4) $17 million – Rose Bowl with Oregon (10-2) and Ohio State (10-2) on Jan. 1.

5) $17 million – Orange Bowl with Georgia Tech (11-2) and Iowa (10-2) on Jan. 5.

6) $4.25 million – Capital One Bowl with Penn State (10-2) and Louisiana State (9-3) on Jan. 1.

7) $3.3 million – Outback Bowl with Northwestern (8-4) and Auburn (7-5) on Jan. 1.

$3.005 million – Chick-fil-A Bowl with Virginia Tech (9-3) and Tennessee (7-5) on Dec. 31.

9) $3 million – Cotton Bowl with Oklahoma State (9-3) and Mississippi (8-4) on Jan. 2.

10) $2.5 million – Gator Bowl with West Virginia (9-3) and Florida State (6-6) on Jan. 1.

11) $2.35 million – Holiday Bowl with Nebraska (9-4) and Arizona (8-4) on Dec. 30.

12) $2.25 million – Champs Sports Bowl with Miami, FL (9-3) and Wisconsin (9-3) on Dec. 29.

13) $2.25 million – Alamo Bowl with Texas Tech (8-4) and Michigan State (6-6) on Jan. 2.

14) $1.9 million – Sun Bowl with Stanford (8-4) and Oklahoma (7-5) on Dec. 31.

15) $1.7 million – Liberty Bowl with East Carolina (9-4) and Arkansas (7-5) on Jan. 2.

16) $1.6 million – Music City Bowl with Clemson (8-5) and Kentucky (7-5) on Dec. 27.

17) $1.35 million – Insight Bowl with Iowa State (6-6) and Minnesota (6-6) on Dec.31.

18) $1.1 million – Independence Bowl with Georgia (7-5) and Texas A&M (6-6) on Dec. 28.

19) $1 million – Las Vegas Bowl with Brigham Young (10-2) and Oregon State (8-4) on Dec. 22.

20) $1 million – Meineke Car Care Bowl with Pittsburgh (9-3) and North Carolina (8-4) on Dec. 26.

21) $1 million – St. Petersburg Bowl with Rutgers (8-4) and Central Florida (8-4) on Dec. 19.

22) $1 million – EagleBank Bowl with Temple (9-3) and UCLA (6-6) on Dec. 29.

23) $850,000 – Emerald Bowl with Southern California (8-4) and Boston College (8-4) on Dec. 26.

24) $750,000 – GMAC Bowl with Central Michigan (11-2) and Troy (9-3) on Jan. 6.

25) $750,000 – Poinsettia Bowl with Utah (9-3) and California (8-4) on Dec. 23.

26) $750,000 – Little Caesars Pizza Bowl with Ohio (9-4) and Marshall (6-6) on Dec. 26.

27) $750,000 – New Mexico Bowl with Fresno State (8-4) and Wyoming (6-6) on Dec. 19.

28) $750,000 – Humanitarian Bowl with Idaho (7-5) and Bowling Green (7-5) on Dec. 30.

29) $750,000 – International Bowl with South Florida (7-5) and Northern Illinois (7-5) on Jan. 2.

30) $700,000 – Texas Bowl with Missouri (8-4) and Navy (8-4) on Dec. 31.

31) $600,000 – Armed Forces Bowl with Houston (10-3) and Air Force (7-5) on Dec. 31.

32) $398,000 – Hawaii Bowl with Nevada (8-4) and Southern Methodist (7-5) on Dec. 24.

33) $325,000 – New Orleans Bowl with Middle Tennessee (9-3) an Southern Mississippi (7-5) on Dec. 20.

34) $300,000 – Papjohns.com Bowl with South Carolina (7-5) and Connecticut (7-5) on Jan. 2.

Copyright © 2009 Ed Bagley

Read more of my football coverage, including:

“Ed Bagley’s Top 25 Poll” for Week 14-you get rankings plus humor. Would you believe that Florida is ranked 6th and Southern California 23rd? Don’t laugh, find out why.

“Why Bowl Games Are Such a Big Deal: They Bring Prestige and $139+ Million”

http://www.edbagleyblog.com

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What are the benefits of automotive reviews and who benefits from them? The answer appears to be simple. The consumer is given all the details he/she might be interested in, as well as a rating of the automobile, so he/she appears to be the sole beneficiary of automotive reviews, since they are useful instruments in making the right choice when purchasing a car. But automotive reviews can work for the benefit of car dealers just as well, as their websites will be considerably trafficked, and initiation of leads from the part of the informed consumers – potential consumers – is more likely to take place.

When car dealers are interested in attracting visitors to their websites, they have a great variety of means at their disposal. A good ranking made by a search engine will definitely come with an increased number of visitors, but another problem still remains. How do you retain those visitors and turn them into potential customers? Automotive reviews are the answer. Good automotive reviews offer the right information that the visitors require. A first step, which is very important, is that the potential customers will spend quite some time reading the automotive review posted on the website. The purchase of a car is an important step and deciding upon a certain car model may prove to be a complex and painstaking process. Regardless of their financial possibilities, all the potential buyers feel the need to be well informed before they move on to the next step, that of actually paying for the car and driving it home. When researching, customers will find it useful to have access to independent automotive reviews, which will guarantee that their best interest as consumers comes first. The right information offered by independent automotive reviews can turn a visitor into a customer very quickly, and this is what car dealers have to take advantage of.

Automotive news is another means of keeping the potential customers informed. The latest news make the object of interest for all those passionate about cars, or those researching for a car purchase. However, many people consider that the automotive reviews found on automotive blogs are to be trusted more than any other means of information. Consumers trust automotive blogs because they know that most of the information there comes from people just like them who have something to share. Providing the consumer with the possibility of writing his/her own review of a car is important. People wish to make educated choices when it comes to purchasing a car, and automotive blogs offer them the information they need.

An automotive blog is not just a reliable source of information, but is also available at any hour, since the internet has no limitations whatsoever. An automotive blog will provide visitors with all sorts of information, such as tips for buying cars, maintenance, car repair and safety, environmental issues, and so forth. Some other car-related aspects may constitute the reason why people affiliate to an automotive blog. These aspects may refer to esthetics, utility or power.

An automotive blog is all the more reliable when it contains photographs or videos, or gives reference to other car blogs or similar websites, showing that the consumer’s best interest comes first.

For more resources about automotive news and especially about automotive reviews please review this website http://www.car-spin.com

Lights! Camera! Action!

Now with our exclusive movie party theme, your birthday child can star in their own movie!

That’s right, with fun kid birthday parties one-of-a-kind movie making adventure, you can turn your child’s birthday party into a movie making party they’ll never forget.

Imagine how excited your birthday child will be when they get to tell all their party guests that everyone is going to be in a movie… Wow! This is going to be super fun.

“The Great Birthday Treasure Hunt” is an original 3 minute mini-movie script exclusively from Fun Kid Birthday Parties and it’s yours absolutely FREE.

And when you order your free movie script we’ll even send you our easy to follow tips on how to put together this super fun one-of-a-kind movie party theme that everyone will love… And you’ll have a great time too!

Movie Party Theme

Everyone has dreamed of starring in a movie… And now your birthday child can star in “The Great Birthday Treasure Hunt” a fun 3 minute movie production.

Movie Party Invitations

Make your invitations into a “Movie Star Contract.” You might write something like this:

Movie Star Contract

“You’re so talented and glamorous that (your family name) Productions would like for you to sign this fun contract to appear in our latest blockbuster movie production titled “The Great Birthday Treasure Hunt.”

We’re celebrating (first and last name of birthday child)’s birthday on (day and date of the party) at our (your family name) Productions movie studios from (start time and end time of your party).

(First and last name of birthday child) will be starring in our movie adventure and wants you to be one of the movie’s co-stars.

“The Great Birthday Treasure Hunt” will be filmed on location in and around our movie studio.

Our movie party theme will include time for autographs, movie games and activities, movie screenings and our studio commissary will be providing delicious movie production treats for our entire cast.

Please sign this Movie Star Contract and call your agent (name of agent to ask for) at (telephone number) to RSVP for your movie star roll in our original movie production.”

The (family name) Productions movie studio is located at (address).

Come dressed as your favorite movie character. (or you can have everyone show up in whatever costume you’d like, western, The Incredibles, Princess, fashion, or whatever theme you want).

Movie Party Theme Decorations

Your decorations can include a director’s chair, a megaphone, scene slate, light cut outs, camera cut outs, studio signs like “Hot Set”. “Birthday Movie Set”, “Hollywood Studio”. .

Movie Party Theme Games And Activities

You can make your movie production your entire party or you can set up some movie related activities and games.

Movie Party Theme, Screen Your Dailies

After you shoot the scenes for your movie, “The Great Birthday Treasure Hunt”, you can screen the raw unedited footage. Your guest will love seeing everything, including all the fun out-takes and bloopers.

Movie Party Theme, Snacks And Refreshments

Movie sets always have lots of snack food nearby for all the actors and crew… Favorites include M & M candies, Gummy Bears, nuts, fruit slices, veggie slices, chips and dips and any other finger snacks your birthday child might like.

Have fun and put a sign on your table that reads “Studio Commissary”.

Kid Movie Party World Premiere

One of the fun things about shooting a movie as a special birthday party is that you can have a second party as well. We’ve done this and everyone loved it!

Once your movie is edited, you’ll want to have your movies “World Premiere.”

Print out some movie ticket invitations, roll out a red carpet, invite the “paparazzi” (photographers) to snap pictures and video as your stars arrive.

Have some popcorn, screen your movie!

Follow your movie’s world premiere with an Academy Awards style party. Hand out awards (special best actor certificates) to all your actors! And let everyone make an acceptance speech. This is a lot of fun. This will be a movie premiere that everyone will remember!

To get you started on this unique, one-of-a-kind movie making adventure, Fun Kid Birthday Parties will send you a copy of our 3 minute movie script, “The Great Birthday Treasure Hunt” absolutely free. And we’ll include our easy to follow tips on how to put together this fun movie production for your birthday child.

To get your free kids movie party script visit us at Fun-Kid-Birthday-Parties.com and fill out the easy form at the bottom of the page.

Mike Dougherty is a movie and television writer, producer, director, video editor and regional Emmy award winning videographer. Most recently as a Hollywood screenwriter “the Long Ride Home” a western movie starring Randy Travis is based on Mike Dougherty’s short script. To get your free kids movie script, visit http://fun-kid-birthday-parties.com/kid-movie-party-theme.html right now